How did the Berkman Center get involved in the DNS mess?
The Berkman Center became involved in the process leading up to the formation of ICANN in July, 1998, during the meetings of the International Forum on the White Paper (IFWP), a series of conferences aimed at gathering consensus as to how–and by whom–the domain name system and related Internet functions would be coordinated in the future. These meetings were prompted by a U.S. Government policy statement, the “White Paper,” calling for the creation of a new non-profit corporation, “newco” to coordinate key Internet management tasks. Tamar Frankel, Professor of Law at Boston University and Chair of the IFWP invited Berkman Center Executive Director Jonathan Zittrain to accompany her to the first of these meetings in Reston, Virginia. Zittrain and fellow Berkman Center faculty member Larry Lessig were tapped as moderators for the IFWP meeting in Geneva, and the Center constructed a public interest Web page that contained the complete compendium of IFWP-related materials, including a Be
